Suggestions for "how to's" on doing a ship's nameplate

[Commander Bond, RNSVR]

Hello!

 

I am in the early planning stages for Model Shipways' Armed Virginia Sloop, and would like to eventually put a name on the stern. This is a 1/48 scale ship, so the nameplate would necessarily be fairly small, but I would still like it to be easily legible. I was wondering about miniature transfer letters? This would probably be a wooden nameplate, since the ship herself isn't particularly ostentatious, naturally. How have other builders addressed this?

 

Many thanks in advance. Cheers ! 🍻

[allanyed]

Mark 

 There was likely no nameplate, but rather the name would have been painted directly on the stern if it was there at all.  Not that the Americans followed what the British did, but the British began painting the names of the ship on the stern by order in September, 1772 some few years after Virginia was launched.   They stopped putting the names on the ships after 10 years as they felt it was giving the enemy information unnecessarily .  Again I don't know if the Americans followed the British practice, so if you do go with putting the letters on, rub on letters are a great way to go but be sure to make a template on paper and print the name on this template.  Hold it to the stern to be sure that the curves of the stern do not wind up having the letters cup, but rather go straight across or arc slightly.  Once it is correct, the template  can be used as a guide for placing the final lettering directly onto the stern.   

 

ASIDE--I looked at your URL.     Did you write the Oscar Jade series?    

Allan

 

 

[Commander Bond, RNSVR]

3 hours ago, allanyed said:

I looked at your URL.     Did you write the Oscar Jade series?    

Allan

 

 

Yes, sir. That's me 🍻

[allanyed]

Congratulations on your authoring the series.  I will be ordering the first one as soon as I am done with the books I am currently reading now.  

Allan

 

[Dr PR]

I have used rub-on letters in a rather unorthodox way to get neat permanent lettering on models (rub-ons may peel off after a few years).

 

Rub-ons are fairly thick at model scales. This is OK if you are modeling wooden or metal letters/numbers that were attached to the ship. But they are unrealistically thick for painted letters/numbers, so I use them as stencils for painted letters.

 

1. Paint the surface the color of the letters. Let it dry thoroughly.

 

2. Rub the desired lettering on the painted surface.

 

3. Paint over the letters with the desired surface color. Airbrush is best for this. Let it dry.

 

4. Carefully peel off the rub-on letters/numbers.

 

I originally did this in desperation because I needed some lettering in a font and color that was not produced in decals or rub-ons. But the correct font was available in rub-ons in different colors. The result was perfect letters in the correct font and color, they had no raised edges like decals or rub-ons, and they were permanent.

[allanyed]

Hi Phil, The rub-ons I was referring to are lacquer dry transfer type, about 25-50 microns  (0.000025" -0.000050") thick.  Is this the type you used or some other?   

 

 

The following is from an article I found on dry transfer lettering.   

 

Unlike vinyl lettering, dry transfer images and type looks as though they are printed directly on the surface – and they perform equally well on glass, wood, metal and plastic. With dry transfers, there is no edge and they are smooth to the touch. It means that the transfers you receive of your artwork are only the thickness of the lacquer ink. Lacquer adhesive is only on the image area so once applied there is no adhesive outline or residue. Especially important to note is that dry transfers can be made permanent with a clear spray coat of lacquer or workable fixative applied on top. 

 

From what I have been able to find so far,  if the name was on the ship at all, the letters were only painted on, they were never made of wood or metal.

 

Allan

[bruce d]

12 minutes ago, allanyed said:

... dry transfers can be made permanent with a clear spray coat of lacquer or workable fixative applied on top. 

Test first.

From experience, some dry transfer products react with some spray coverings. It will be an easy test because, again from experience, the effect is immediate. So just rub down a letter on some scrap and spray it, you will know pretty much straight away if you have one of the uncommon mis-matches.

I must emphasise, most products will not cause a problem but it is possible, so test.

 

[Dr PR]

Allan,

 

I used rub-ons that had a noticeable thickness - probably vinyl. I am not familiar with the dry-transfer lettering you mention. Something else to learn about!

 

The technique I described - using the rub-on letters as stencils - has one special virtue. You can use the technique on contoured/textured surfaces and the resulting painted letters conform perfectly with the pattern in the surface. It is difficult to get decals to do this, even with the decal setting solutions, and I can't imagine getting a rub-on to conform to a textured surface. By textured surface I mean vent louvers, corrugated panels, etc.

 

Rub-on work fine with smooth surfaces.

[mtaylor]

Here's a link that might help.  They have some good info and also the various brands and products listed.  

 

http://www.pcbsupplies.com/dry-transfer/